desire and drive Archives

The Creation Myth and the Structure of Desire

This essay is a reflection on a few of the primary symbols from the biblical story of the Garden of Eden as seen through an archetypal lens. I focus on four specific symbols: God the Garden of Paradise/the Wilderness the Serpent the Forbidden Fruit, for which I will offer an archetypal analysis and psychological interpretation of the way in which they structure our unconscious creation myth. With any symbol it is important to keep in mind that it has both a subjective personal dimension and...

November 8, 2023

By Stephen FarahAnima mundi, desire and drive, Symbolsarchetypes, myth, symbols26 Comments

Anima and Animus: Desire and Prohibition

Speaking frankly, I think it is accurate to say the Jungian discourse on the anima and animus is currently in a state of some disarray. By saying that, I am not claiming that no one has or is working on its remedy. Respected scholars in the field, and just to name a few I have some personal association with, such as Polly-Young Eisendrath, John Beebe, Susan Rowland, and Andrew Samuels, among many others, have written on it. Each in their...

October 24, 2022

By Stephen FarahAnima and Animus, desire and drive17 Comments

Problems, dilemmas, predicaments: a Jungian approach

As long as one is alive, sane and living in the world you can be sure of having to face and negotiate problems. Much like death and taxes, problems come with the territory. To quote the Bard, To be, or not to be, that is the question: Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to suffer The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, Or to take Arms against a Sea of troubles, And by opposing end them: to die, to sleep No more; and by a sleep,...

August 6, 2019

By Stephen FarahConsciousness, desire and drive, Uncategorizedconsciousness, psychoanalysis11 Comments

The desire – drive dissonance and why you can’t always get what you want.

Sigmund Freud[1]and the birth of psychoanalysis gave rise to the idea of a “drive” and “drive theory”, (in German “trieb” and “Triebtheorie”. )[2] A drive, in this sense, is a psychical phenomenon that represents an unconscious motivation or instinct[3] in the subject’s psychology. The two most prominent of these drives for Freud are Eros, the sexual creative drive, and Thanatos, the aggressive and destructive death drive (Toedestrieb).[4] An important feature, maybe the...

July 8, 2017

By Stephen Farahdesire and drivedesire, drive6 Comments